26 August 2023 Daily

Current Affairs in ENGLISH

UPSC PYQ - 2016

Consider the following statements:

New Development Bank has been set up by APEC.

The headquarters of New Development Bank is in Shanghai.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer

Answer is B. New Development Bank, formerly referred to as the BRICS Development

Bank, is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states.

Headquarters location: Shanghai, China

*Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

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15th Finance Commission

The Finance Commission (FC) is a constitutional body, that determines the method and
formula for distributing the tax proceeds between the Centre and states, and among the
states as per the constitutional arrangement and present requirements.

Under Article 280 of the Constitution, the President of India is required to constitute a
Finance Commission at an interval of five years or earlier.

The 15th Finance Commission was constituted by the President of India in November
2017, under the chairmanship of NK Singh. Its recommendations will cover a period of
five years from the year 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Cleantech, for an inclusive green future in India

Context :- In his address to the nation on Independence Day this year, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi talked about India showing the world how to combat climate change.
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India’s experience has shown that climate action is only effective and embraced at
scale if it aligns with the development aspirations of millions and contributes to
economic growth.

The green economy paradigm provides an optimistic pathway to align development and
environmental outcomes. For instance, building a solar park or an electric vehicle
charging station helps expand the much-needed infrastructure in a developing
economy while furthering climate action. Similarly, reviving millets helps improve farm
incomes in rain-fed areas while making our agriculture climate resilient. But how do we
take this green economy paradigm to the heart of our development needs in the form of
youth looking for jobs, women seeking income opportunities, or farmers waiting to
diversify their incomes?

Initiatives in the hinterlands

In recent years, different initiatives have taken the green economy approach to the
hinterlands of India by enabling access to cleantech solutions for livelihoods among the
rural population. For instance, solar dryers converting throwaway tomatoes into sun-
dried ones in Andhra Pradesh, biomass-powered cold storages helping farmers in
Maharashtra selling lemons make a gain that is three to five times that of the original
price, or solar silk reeling machines reducing drudgery for thigh-reelers and doubling
their income in Odisha are some of the 50,000-plus examples of how cleantech
solutions are already contributing to the jobs and incomes of rural women and men.

But this silent revolution that is underway from Rajasthan to Nagaland and Kashmir to
Tamil Nadu now needs a structural boost. India’s rural economy that comprises 120
million farmers and 34 million microenterprises often struggles with unreliable electricity
access and a dependence on expensive and imported diesel. These cleantech
solutions that are powered by renewable energy can help India reduce its diesel
imports, avoid the loss of perishable food and enhance rural livelihood opportunities
while posing an investment opportunity worth $50 billion for investors and financiers.

Research at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) shows that just
12 such cleantech solutions (varying from solar pumps to cold storages to charkhas
and looms) have the potential to impact at least 37 million livelihoods or about 16% of
our rural population. There needs to be a three-fold approach to traverse this journey
from 50,000-plus to tens of millions.
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Steps to scale up

First, leverage existing government programmes supporting livelihoods. For instance,

the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana that extends collateral-free loans for
microenterprises can be used to enable the adoption of cleantech solutions. Similarly,
the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PM-FME)
scheme that supports the adoption of technology among micro food enterprises can be
used to unlock support for solutions such as a solar dryer, an energy-efficient
multipurpose food processor or a solar grain mill.

Likewise, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana can be leveraged towards
adopting solar refrigerators and dryers for fishing communities. Finally, the Agriculture
Infrastructure Fund, which has only seen a 15% fund utilisation against a target of
₹1,00,000 crore, can support the adoption of biomass-powered cold storage and
beyond.

Second, enable large-scale financing of cleantech solutions. It requires supporting

bankers’ capacity on credit assessment for cleantech because they have not come
across such solutions and the associated cash flows before to make an informed
assessment. We also need to hedge their risks in the initial stages of the market
through partial guarantees. Moreover, active engagement with financiers is important to
structure loan products that are aligned with the cash flow scenarios of users.

Adopting some of these principles helped ‘Powering Livelihoods’, a CEEW-Villgro

initiative, unlock 300-plus loans for cleantech solutions to women, self help groups,
farmer producer organisations and individual microentrepreneurs in rural areas.

Third, enable multi-actor partnerships between technology innovators, manufacturers,

distributors and service providers, financiers, and market-linkage players to enable an
overall ecosystem. Cleantech manufacturers often need help bringing their products to
customers. The challenges faced include low product awareness, high customer
acquisition cost as users need to touch and feel these products before adoption, and
low density of customers for such products in a given area. Users too, at times, struggle
with limited after-sales service and market linkage of the final processed products.

We need a holistic ecosystem where distributors work with manufacturers to enable

technology access at the last mile, service providers ensure after-sales services, and
market-linkage players enable the connection to the market to create a thriving
ecosystem for cleantech to impact rural livelihoods at scale. For instance, there are
solar dyer companies that are not only deploying dryers but are also enabling financing
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for users to adopt the dryers and buying back the final produce from them to ensure
market linkages.

India has massive ambitions for a clean and green future. By focusing on cleantech for
livelihoods and jobs, especially in rural areas, we can make that green future inclusive.

Lord Nataraj

Nataraja (Lord of the Dance), the Hindu god Shiva in his form as the cosmic dancer, is
represented in metal or stone in many Shaivite temples, particularly in South India.

It is an important piece of Chola sculpture.

The upper right-hand holds the drum, which signifies the sound of creation. All
creations spring from the great sound of the damru.

The upper left-hand holds the eternal fire, which represents the destruction. Destruction
is the precursor and inevitable counterpart of creation.

The lower right hand is raised in the gesture of Abhay mudra signifying benediction and
reassuring the devotee to not be afraid.
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The lower left-hand points towards the upraised foot and indicates the path of salvation.

Shiva is dancing on the figure of a small dwarf. The dwarf symbolises ignorance and
the ego of an individual.

The matted and flowing locks of Shiva represent the flow of river Ganges.

In ornamentation, one ear of Shiva has a male earring while the other has a female.
This represents the fusion of male and female and is often referred to
as Ardhanarishwar.

A snake is twisted around the arm of Shiva. The snake symbolises the kundalini power,
which resides in the human spine in the dormant stage. If aroused, one can attain true
consciousness.

India Iran Relations

Iran is an important nation in India’s neighborhood and in fact, the two countries shared
a border until India’s partition and independence in 1947.

What is the Significance of India-Iran Relations?

Location and Connectivity:

Iran is located at a strategic and crucial geographical location between the Persian gulf
and the Caspian Sea.

Iran is important to India as it provides an alternate route of connectivity to Afghanistan

and Central Asian republics through Chabahar port without passing the land route
through Pakistan.
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Cheaper Crude Oil:

Since, Iran is one of the largest deposits of crude oil and natural gas in the world.

India may well consider restarting oil imports from Iran. If India changes course and
resumes imports of Iranian oil, it could potentially encourage some other countries to
follow suit and open up additional oil in the market, which could eventually bring prices
of crude oil down.

Connectivity with Eurasia:

The International Nort South Transport Corridor (INSTC), aims to connect India, Iran,
Afghanistan, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe through multi-modal transport, reducing
the transit time of goods drastically.

Although some part of it has been operationalized, again, due to sanctions on Iran, its
full potential has not been realised. India and Iran could well play a major part in giving
INSTC the required boost to reap the benefits of resultant trade.

UPSC PYQ - 2017

Q- What is the importance of developing Chabahar Port by India?

(a) India’s trade with African countries will enormously increase.

(b) India’s relations with oil-producing Arab countries will be strengthened.

(c) India will not depend on Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

(d) India will protect the installation of a gas pipeline between Iraq and India.

Answer

Answer is C.
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Daily Mains Question

Q- Clean-tech as the next big thing in rural India. Elaborate (150 Words)

प्रश्न- ग्रामीण भारत में अगली बडी चीज़ के रूप में स्वच्छ तकनीक। विस्तृत करें (150 शब्द)